- If necessity is the mother of invention, the designers of these 19th century American patents may have missed the mark.
- A stash of historic patents show ridiculous inventions from sex armor and a cork swimsuit to creepy mechanical dolls, an incredible double bike and even spectacles for chickens.
- The imaginative designs come from the US Patent and Trademark office which granted the patents between 1871 and 1933.
- The designs cater for every strata of society, from a self-tipping hat for the discerning gentleman to a harness for a greyhound-riding monkey.
- Many concepts are concerned with citizen safety - from death-cheating masks and an alternative to the fire escape, to a suit with a metal crotch to keep the genitals of mental health patients under lock and key at a time when masturbation was cited as the cause for insanity.
- And in case death was mistakenly declared and a person was buried alive, a patent was put forward for a 'life-indicator' coffin, where the buried person could rotate a set of handles to move a dial above ground.
- The inventors also had hygiene at the forefront of their minds, with one design showing a high-power jet for spraying women's breasts.
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